


The Stories underneath my Skin

by nanuk_dain



Series: Drift Compatible [9]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, Tattoos, Team Hot Dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-22
Updated: 2014-11-22
Packaged: 2018-02-26 14:32:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2655488
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanuk_dain/pseuds/nanuk_dain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Herc has several tattoos. Stacker has just one. They all tell stories.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stories underneath my Skin

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a wee thing that wouldn't leave me alone. I may have a thing for tattoos (I noticed that it's an element of quite a few of my stories), but it just really fits here, so I hope you like it! Please let me know? Feed the author? I'd love you for it ^^
> 
> For jaja17 - I hope this makes you squee and feeds you Herc/Stacker need ^_^

_Australia, June 2016_

 

Herc gets his first tattoo when he's just turned eighteen. It's on his right upper arm, a sacred heart with a scroll underneath is bearing the word 'Freedom'. It's what he wants, the freedom to decide where he will go and what he will do in life. His parents don't like the new body art, but Herc doesn't care too much. He enlists in the Royal Australia Air Force soon afterwards and suddenly he's just one guy of many with ink under his skin.

He doesn't think much about his second tattoo. It's just natural to get it, and he never questions it. It's not big, just a row of numbers high on his left shoulder blade. He gets it a day after his marriage to Angela, because she's a constant in his life he never wants to forget. It's their wedding date. She sits with him at the tattoo parlour when the numbers are inked under his skin, a soft smile on her lips. 

He has the third tattoo done when he's twenty-three. It's the date of little Charlie's birth, small black numbers on his shoulder blade, right under the date of his wedding to Angela. It's a turning point for him, one of the most important days in his life. He will never forget the feelings that almost overwhelmed him when he held his son for the first time, a tiny wrinkled thing with incredibly soft ginger hair and capturing, curious blue eyes. Herc loves him so much that it almost chokes him, and it's Angela's hand on his arm and her warm smile that make him return to the real world. When he comes to the hospital the next day to bring her and Charlie home, the new tattoo is still sore under his t-shirt.

He gets his fourth tattoo when he joins the PPDC. Angela is dead and he feels like the hole in his chest will never be filled again. He needs a reminder of what he's fighting for, so the day before he leaves for Kodiak Island to train at the Jaeger Academy, he goes to the same parlour where he got all of his tattoos done, carrying a print-out of the logo of the Australian strike group he's been accepted into. It's a map of Australia with a compass overlaying it, its rays stretching out behind the continent like rays of sunlight, and underneath it is a scroll with the group's motto. The tattoo is on his right lower arm, big enough to be a distinguishing mark, just like he wants it.

Stacker gets his first and only tattoo when he's thirty-one, freshly diagnosed with terminal cancer and banned from a Jaeger Conn-Pod for the rest of his life - however long that might be. It's nothing fancy, it's just four letters in a strong, clearly legible Gothic font, reading 'Herc'.

It feels right. Herc is his equal, his most trusted friend, his partner for life, always a challenge and yet never a disappointment. He's Stacker's rock, and Stacker never quite realised it until he hit rock bottom. When that happened Herc never hesitated to fly over from Alaska and to drag Tamsin and Stacker out of their misery and on a road trip through Australia. And during these past few weeks Stacker found his centre again, the one he lost when he learned that he could never pilot again. Now that he had the opportunity to step back from the entire situation, he knows what his place can be if it's not in a Jaeger. There are other positions that he can fight the Kaiju in. No reason to give up.

And it's Herc who showed him, who gave him the opportunity to realise that his life isn't over yet, who believes in him and supports him without ever being obvious about it. He's the silent strength in Stacker's back. He's more important to Stacker than he can ever put in words. So Stacker goes out that afternoon, finds the tattoo parlour he remembers passing on their way into town, and gets the four letters that form Herc's name tattooed high on his left chest, right over his heart. 

He's never had a fancy for tattoos before and never gave them much thought. But right now, he feels that he is at a turning point in his life, and he has this incredibly strong urge to mark it. He doesn't even have to think about it, he just knows that Herc's name is the only thing he will ever allow to be inked under his skin. 

When he gets back to the campsite, Stacker has to admit that he is nervous. He's not usually the type for such grand gestures, but doing this, getting that name under his skin just feels so utterly right. He can't help waiting tensely for the evening, though, when he plans to take Herc into the shower with him and show him the result of today's trip to town. He greatly appreciates the fact that there are single shower cubicles that lock, and that there's only one other vehicle on the caravan park, a campervan carrying two young women that Tamsin already befriended yesterday. Nobody is going to be in the men's showers but them. 

Herc is all for sharing the shower when Stacker suggests it after dinner. They haven't had much opportunity to get intimate in the crowded quarters of the SUV, so Stacker doesn't need to supply any other incentive. Tam just smirks at them and tells them to take their time.

Herc is breathless when they undress in the shower stall and he catches sight of the tattoo on Stacker's chest. He stares for a long moment before he reaches out with his hand and his fingertips trail the scabbed over letters, slowly and reverently, his touch barely more than a whisper on Stacker's skin. It makes goosebumps spread all over his body. 

A second later Herc has pinned him to the wall and kisses him with such passion that it takes Stacker's breath away. Herc gets on his knees right there in the shower and sucks Stacker off until his legs turn into jelly and he comes with a groan that he struggles to keep quiet. Then Herc's hands find his hole, slick with shampoo, and he prepares Stacker quickly before he enters him in one swift thrust. Stacker presses back into him, he already feels loose and boneless, his mind still fuzzy from his orgasm, but he wants Herc to take him, mark him, right now, right here. He can't quite believe it when Herc manages to make him come a second time only a few minutes later when he feels Herc's warm come inside him.

That night they sleep with their t-shirts off, and Stacker feels Herc's hand caressing the new ink carefully. He smiles, feeling warm and comfortable and completely satisfied.

Herc gets his fifth tattoo the next day. He's thirty-six, has lost his wife almost two years ago, lives in a world that's threatened by monsters, and his partner has terminal cancer. And yet he knows that all that was necessary to bring him to this point, to this little tattoo parlour in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, Australia, with the man by his side that he knows he will stay with for the rest of their lives, no matter how long - or short - that might be. It feels right, as if all the hardships were part of the way. Stacker stands right next to him when he tells the middle-aged shop owner what he wants under his skin. Only six letters in a clear Gothic font, 'Stacks', high on his chest, on the right side.

The guy just looks at them with a silent smile on his lips, obviously recognising Stacker from the day before, and goes to work. It's only later that evening, when they're standing together in a comfortable embrace in the shower cubicle, that Herc notices that their tattoos are at the exact same heigh, touching when they embrace.

A perfect match.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [I missed You](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2859017) by [nanuk_dain](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanuk_dain/pseuds/nanuk_dain)




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